Should learners be learning Javascript?
From Christian Montoya:
It is my opinion that we should not introduce Javascript to these students at all. There isn’t enough time to teach them how to use Javascript correctly, and there are more useful things we can teach them related to CSS and PHP. I think Javascript should be avoided altogether.
We do have time to learn a little more in our course… with activities like the JavaScript challenges for input validation, but it’s still a struggle for most people given that it’s their first taste of programming. I think most of us in the course just learn the basics – enough to learn more if we have time/are keen.
Perhaps we should do PHP first? Hmmm… unfortunately our new national qualification structure doesn’t allow it. (Note to self: add unobtrusive Javascript to challenges!)
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I feel that PHP just makes more sense when learning web design. It’s easier to get ones head around it because, at least at it’s basic levels, PHP integrates more closely with HTML. With JavaScript, to do anything we need all that strange DOM stuff, whereas with PHP we’re still more-or-less using HTML, just with some extra codey bits.
I totally agree. JavaScript is something thats very annoying sometimes and I reckon until you’ve covered programming concepts in general its a bad idea to let people use JavaScript.
Yeah, this has come up quite a few times this year, and most people in our course feel the same way… But the new qualification we’ve got includes “client side script” as part of the Cert IV course, whereas server-side stuff is in the Diploma…
Another example of the training package being a bit behind the times (a few years ago when JS meant image rollovers etc, it was fine).
Maybe one way around it is to use PHP to introduce people to programming… but I’m not sure about that either… needs to be something fun and visual. People seem mixed with Alice (well, lots hate it :( ). I think you’re right Adam – perhaps we should use PHP as the first programming language – even if it means going against the grain of the training package a bit…?
I don’t know much about the course but wouldn’t it be better to start with a more highly typed language?
It would… it was a computer science degree. But it’s a 1 year course where Javascript (the only programming therein) is one unit out of 25…
I don’t think the course is meant to give people a background in computer programming – just a few skills using Javascript so that when, as a Web Designer, they have to plug in some script, they know their way around to do so… but then the actual requirements of the unit go way beyond that to write your own code to fulfil client requirements. So the unit assumes (in my view) that the learner can already program…